The name Cromarty variously derives from the Gaelic crom (crooked), and from bati (bay), or from àrd (height), meaning either the "crooked bay", or the "bend between the heights" (referring to the high rocks, or Sutors, which guard the entrance to the Firth), and gave the title to the Earldom of Cromartie. Its name in 1264 was Crumbathyn.[2]

The port was home to Britain's smallest vehicle ferry, the Cromarty Rose, running across the Firth to Nigg. The Cromarty Rose was sold in 2009 and replaced for the 2011 season by a new four-car ferry called the Cromarty Queen. It runs from June to October, from roughly 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Cromarty is architecturally important for its Georgian merchant houses that stand within a townscape of Georgian and Victorian fisherman's cottages in the local vernacular style. It is an outstanding example of a 18th/19th century burgh, "the jewel in the crown of Scottish Vernacular Architecture".[3] The thatched house with crow-stepped gables in Church Street, in which the geologist Hugh Miller was born (in 1801), still stands, and a statue has been erected to his memory. To the east of the burgh is Cromarty House, occupying the site of the old castle of the earls of Ross. It was the birthplace of Sir Thomas Urquhart, the translator of Rabelais.

The burgh is also noted as a base for viewing the local offshore sea life. These include one of the most northerly groups of bottlenose dolphins. Cromarty along with Chanonry Point just round the coast is one of the best places in Europe to see these animals close to the shore. The University of Aberdeen Department of Zoology Lighthouse Field Station is based in Cromarty.

The small community is also known for being a hub of creative activity including a number of promotional groups, several arts venues and, the town hosts its own Film Festival each December, the Cromarty "My Favourite Film" Festival. Guests of the 2008 festival included Kirsty Wark and Alan Clements, Donald Shaw and Karen Matheson, Janice Forsyth, David Mackenzie and Michael Caton-Jones. Each guest selected five of their favourite films, one of which was shown during the weekend. In addition to the Favourite Films, there is an outdoor screening on a Gable End, Gaelic Short films, Animation workshop, photographic exhibition and late night Pizza and Film screenings. All crammed into one weekend in a small town in the Highlands.

The site of the town's medieval burgh dating to at least the 12th century was identified by local archaeologists after winter storms in 2012 eroded sections of the shoreline. A community archaeology project started in 2013 is investigating the remains of roads and buildings at the site on the eastern edge of the present town.[4]

There is a legend, dating from around 1740, that a Cromarty man named John Reid was granted three wishes from a mermaid, and that he used one of the wishes to marry a woman named Helen Stuart.[5]

The town made the news in October 2012 when Bobby Hogg, the last speaker of the traditional local North Northern Scots dialect, died.[6] This was referred to on HeraldScotland as a dialect of the Scots language,[7] although a report on BBC Radio 4 said that the dialect had been strongly influenced by the English spoken at the local naval base and that it was one of the only areas in Scotland to exhibit H-dropping.[8] Hogg had previously compiled a booklet of traditional words and phrases.[9][10][11] In addition, the Highland Council had produced a digital booklet on the dialect. This states that the thou forms were still in common use in the first half of the 20th century and remained in occasional usage at the time of publication.[12]